What is Among Us?
Easy to learn and fun to play, Among Us is a multiplayer, online game where 4-10 players are thrown into a spaceship getting ready for departure when they are assigned to be either a crewmate or imposter. While the crewmates are given tasks in different rooms of the ship, while at the same time the imposters’ goal is to kill and frame one of the crew members.
Depending on the size of the group, there will either be 1 to 3 imposters. If the imposters are successful at killing off the crew, there will be meetings when a body is found, or when someone pushes the “emergency meeting” button; these events allow the players to exchange information then vote on who they think the imposter(s) are. It’s always important to stay on your toes while playing because lurking around any corner there could be someone ready to kill you. The imposter may be the person who you least expect!
Why the exponential increase in popularity?
The game was adopted by several Twitch streamers and Youtubers who propelled the game into the spotlight. Back in June, Twitch only had 14 channels that were focused on streaming the game with only 174 viewers watching monthly. Comparing that to the beginning of September, statistics from Dot Esports concludes that approximately 80,000 viewers tuned into Among Us streams on Twitch, amassing over 13 million hours watched. If you want more in-depth coverage of the game’s popularity, this metric shows its rise to fame.
Adding on to that is the fact that the game is highly collaborative, allowing for ten well-known personalities to gather together each and add their own unique commentary. Between beauty YouTuber James Charles to Minecraft YouTuber Dream, multiple channels with millions of subscribers have played. Even, U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocacia-Cortez for New York’s 14th congressional district played the game to encourage people to vote, peaking at 435,000 viewers.
And of course, memes have been created around the game, drawing in even more people to play and keep coming back in order for them to stay in the loop. With so much press surrounding this phenomenon, CNBC reports that Among Us was downloaded nearly 42 million times on Steam in the first half of September, and it was downloaded nearly 84 million times on iOS and Android in the same month. According to Sensortower, a source cited by CNBC, the game hasn’t left the top five on Apple’s U.S. App Store since Sept. 1, and it has seen more than 158 million installs worldwide across the App Store and Google Play to date. It has even become so popular that the creators have canceled the sequel in order to work on further development of the original.
All About the Timing
But perhaps even more relevant at the time, is considering the fact that gathering together in groups of more than five is simply not a reality possible at the moment. Among Us quenches our thirst for social interaction by allowing people to create a private lobby filled with their friends, or even join public lobbies with strangers from around the world. It just shows that people are always finding new ways to improve quarantine and still find connections with old friends or new acquaintances.
If you want to download the game to play for yourself, simply look up Among Us in the App Store. The best part is it’s completely free!